After ‘exhaustive’ search, Coney Island ferry plans unknown

A city agency says it is still committed to bringing ferry service to Coney Island, rejecting an advocacy group’s claim that funding for an oceanside landing has run dry.

Coney Islanders for an Ocean Side Ferry, a pro-ferry group of Coney Island residents and stakeholders, does not think the city has the money to finish an oceanside landing project and hopes it will secure federal funding.

“We hope that EDC can find a federal partner to help with the construction cost of the maritime infrastructure necessary to build out a ferry landing on the oceanside of the Coney Island peninsula,” Craig Hammerman, co-president of Coney Islanders for an Ocean Side Ferry, said in a statement Saturday.

The city built a multimillion-dollar ferry landing in the Coney Island Creek at Kaiser Park, but once the landing was constructed in 2021, sand shift was discovered in the creek, leading to safety and navigation issues, the EDC says. All work in the area stopped in late 2021.

EDC officials say they are exploring ways “to keep this essential transit network sustainable and available to New Yorkers.”

“After an exhaustive look at the different location options for a Coney Island ferry landing and continuous dialogue with the community, we have not yet found an operationally viable and financially responsible path forward,” the EDC said in a statement Saturday. “NYCEDC remains committed to continued economic development and support to Coney Island and its residents, and we welcome discussions with the community about the possible future of a ferry landing.”

The city hired McLaren Engineering Group earlier this year to do a study that evaluated options for ferry service in Coney Island. The study found that it would cost more than $35 million to continue operations at the current location, more than $25 million to build a landing at the Outer Creek site and more than $200 million to make oceanside service to the beach reliable.

“All options come with significant costs. The cheapest option is five times higher than the average cost of a new ferry landing and the most expensive could potentially be more than 40 times higher than the average cost of a new ferry landing,” the EDC said. “We now have to turn our attention to getting that piece in place.”